Mark 12:2

at the season i. e. when the fruit season drew near.

a servant So Luke 20:10; his servants, Matthew 21:34; the prophets and other eminent messengers of God raised up at particular periods for particular purposes. "Servi sunt ministri extraordinarii, majores; agricolæ, ordinarii." Bengel.

of the fruit The householder's share. The rent not being paid in money, but in a stipulated portion of the produce, according to the well-known metayersystem once prevalent over great part of Europe. The prophets were sent to the people from time to time to require of them "the repentance and the inward longing after true inward righteousness, which the Law was unable to bring about."